


Washed-Up

by EvieNyx



Series: Backstage AU [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Gen, Like super messed up, Oops, and washed up on ember island, backstage au, because he jumped off during a storm like a week or two after the agni kai, theater kid!zuko, this is the least angsty au ive ever made omg, uncle is probably super worried, zuko basically abandoned ship and almost died
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-02 17:27:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,221
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24330556
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvieNyx/pseuds/EvieNyx
Summary: It's not every day injured kids wash up on the beach of Ember Island. Good thing it was an Ember Island Player who found him.They tend to get attached to things rather quickly.
Relationships: Zuko & Ember Island Players
Series: Backstage AU [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1756543
Comments: 47
Kudos: 963





	Washed-Up

**Author's Note:**

> [Tumblr](https://evienyx.tumblr.com/)
> 
> (if that's not working here's the link https://good-eviening.tumblr.com/ )  
> 
> 
> You can find more of this AU on my Tumblr.
> 
> Basically a "Zuko gets adopted by the Ember Island Players" AU. Officially called the "Backstage AU"

Ami had been into theatre for longer than she could remember. It was what her mother had done, and her grandmother, and her great-grandfather (her great-grandmother had been a seamstress). That was why, when she was invited to join the Ember Island Players, it was a greater honor than her family could even put into words.

Ami went home for the holidays, and one extra weekend every four months, but other than that, she lived and breathed the Ember Island Theater. 

The actors there were the best of the best. Everyone knew that. The island was full of nobles who either lived there or vacationed there. The island was the  _ only place _ the royal family had ever had a  _ permanent vacation home  _ at.  _ They _ were the ones who got invited once a year to perform at the capital for all the noblemen who lived there (never the Fire Lord, though. He didn’t have  _ time _ for theatre). They were the  _ best _ .

That was why the actors all lived above the theater itself. The Ember Island Theater was  _ massive _ , and the top two floors were just apartments for the actors themselves. No one knew that the apartments were there, it was one of the best-kept secrets in the Fire Nation (or, at least, they told themselves that). Even those who retired didn’t tell anyone. 

It wasn’t like the apartments were  _ luxurious _ , but they got to live in them for free, and the salary that actors didn’t send to families or spend on necessities was just enough that, if they saved some of it, they could afford to really make the apartments their  _ own _ .

The Ember Island Players was a fun group to be a part of,  _ especially _ if you were one of the members of the permanent company. The Players sometimes did a play with more characters than they had actors, so they brought in extra ones from other esteemed companies. Still, those actors stayed for a few months, in some of the empty apartments, or even in inns on the island, and then they left.

It was the  _ permanent company _ you wanted to be a part of.  _ They _ were the ones who understood what it was like to leave your family and friends for your dream.  _ They _ were the ones who became your  _ new _ family. 

(Well, them and Old Man Dai, the one who did most of the special effects during the shows. All the actors loved him).

Ami loved being a member of the Ember Island Players, and not just for the honor part. It was a concrete thing, with people that cared about her. Nothing was ever surprising, things were normal and fun, and she got paid and got nationwide recognition just for doing what she loved.

At least, that was how things had been  _ before _ the kid showed up.

Ami herself had been the one to find him. 

It was the day after one of their shows closed, in the late spring, about a month before the start of summer. The two days after a show closed, the actors were,  _ technically _ , free to do as they pleased, and it didn’t count toward their vacation time. They still did some work, though, and were expected to have at least the first scene of the next play they were putting on memorized by the end of the two days, but, still, it was nice.

Ami always hung out with the other Players for the first day, but on the second day, that was when everyone took time to themselves, relaxing, reenergizing, and reading their new scenes. Personally, Ami always took a  _ long _ walk on the beach, starting  _ early _ in the morning and ending a while after when people normally ate lunch.

It was on this walk that she found  _ the kid _ .

He was just… laying there, on an abandoned part of the beach. No one was around, the sun wasn’t even totally up yet over the horizon, but she could see him clearly. His lower half was being lapped by waves. He was wearing  _ soaked _ clothes, had a small pack near him (which she would later realize was an iguana-seal-skin pack, meaning it was waterproof and  _ incredibly expensive holy shit- _ ), and his head was half-wrapped with dirty, soaking bandages.

She moved forward as if on instinct and looped her arm through the pack. She bent down and turned him over onto his back, then scooped under him and picked the kid up. He was incredibly light. His forehead was warm. Where he had been laying in the sand, on the front side of his body, he was covered in sand.

Ami turned and slowly made her way back to the private stretch of beach that the Ember Island Theater owned.

This kid needed a bath.

\- - -

“Where did you get a kid from?”

“Found him on the beach?”

“Why... Why is his head like that?”

“You mean all wrapped-up and everything?”

“Yeah.”

“No clue.”

“Why is he passed out?”

“Probably cause he just washed up on a beach.”

“Fair enough. What are you gonna do with him?”

“...I’m gonna keep ‘im.”

\- - -

Ami just barely managed to make it through the first test of the first scene for their new play without messing up. She technically  _ did _ mess up, but it was waved off, and she made sure not to do it again. Eiko was proud of her for that.

The kid had been in one of the guest rooms for nearly a day, now, and all the actors knew about him (not that Ami would ever hide something like that from their family).

(Not that she  _ could _ ).

She’d enlisted Eiko himself to care for the kid, just because his  _ mother _ had been a healer. He’d protested that he didn’t know enough to help the kid. She’d responded by citing the four times he’d set dislocated body parts that were hurt from failed stunts and sent the actors who had been injured back out in the  _ next _ scene. She said he was the most qualified and, well, he couldn’t argue with that.

The kid hadn’t woken up yet. No one knew who he was. Ami wouldn’t let anyone open his pack (and she was a terrible liar, so everyone knew that  _ she _ hadn’t opened it, either), saying it was a breach in his privacy that they shouldn’t commit.

_ Stupid morals… _

The kid wasn’t doing so well. Eiko dribbled water into his mouth and a bit of juice, too. The kid had a fever, and he had nearly drowned, it seemed, if the way he was passed out on the beach  _ the night after a storm _ was anything to go by. He must have hit a rock or two on his way to the beach Ami had found him on, because his pants were ripped in multiple places and there were bloody gashes below. Honestly, it was a miracle he was still alive. A blessing from Agni, perhaps. 

And all of that wasn’t even mentioning the bandages that wrapped the kid’s head. They were dirty and soaked and the skin below was inflamed, that much was obvious, and Eiko had known he’d have to take them off, clean whatever wound was below, and reapply them.

The kid had made his first noise at that. Eiko had soon known why.

Ami had been in the room with him (she seemed oddly protective of the kid already) when he’d removed the bandages, and she had actually been forced to run from the room to throw up.

Eiko had almost wanted to join her.

It was…  _ horrible _ . Eiko was half-convinced the kid’s wound was infected, and he was completely sure the wound was a burn. A  _ very  _ serious one, and a rather fresh one, too, maybe a week old, at most.  _ That _ explained why the skin was  _ so _ inflamed, and why taking a dive in the ocean had put him nearly on death’s door. Eiko wouldn’t be surprised if the kid had passed out in the salt water from the pain alone.

He huffed out a sigh, swallowed down the lump in his throat and the bile that was building there two, and moved to clean the wound.

Ami returned a few minutes later, and didn’t leave again.

\- - -

“That kid’s been out for a week, Ami.”

“You act like I don’t know that.”

“Are you  _ sure _ you don’t wanna bring him to a healer?”   
“We bring him to a healer, they ask questions. Ones that we  _ can’t _ answer. Like, where we found him. Why he has bandages around his head like he was in the war. Besides, Eiko is doing just fine healing him. His mother was a healer, after all.”

“...What’s under the bandages, Ami?”

“It doesn’t matter.”

“Tell me.”

“...A burn. A giant one. On his eye, his cheek, stretching all the way back to his ear. It’s... terrible. And inflamed, from the salt water. Eiko says it’s pretty fresh.”

“Think it was an accident, or...”

“The only way we’ll find out is when he wakes up.”

“ _ If _ he wakes up.”

“ _ When _ .”

\- - -

Nori had worked as an Ember Island Player for years. She’d joined just as two of the most famous Players to ever perform left, and a week after she had moved into her apartment, Ami had shown up. They were close in age, they had joined the Players within about a week of one another, and the apartments they were given were even right next to each other. They became friends pretty quickly.

Things were fun as an Ember Island Player. They were hard, sure, but they were fun and they were  _ normal _ .

At least, they were before that  _ kid _ had shown up.

Ami barely ever left the kid’s side. It was as if she knew him, even though she didn’t. She was overly protective of this kid that nobody had met. Ami had even taken the kid’s pack to her own apartment to keep it safe from anyone who might want to look through it.

Still, Nori couldn’t blame her.

They  _ all _ felt a little protective over the kid.

In the past few weeks, he had almost died more times than Eiko could apparently count. Someone  _ always _ had to be up and monitoring his temperature, Eiko had decided (executively, as healer-in-charge, apparently), after one incident about a week in when the kid’s temperature had spiked. He would have died had Takeo not gotten up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and peeked in on the kid  _ on a whim _ to check on him.

Nori remembered that night vividly. It had been terrifying.

It was a wonder to her that everyone (including her) cared about this kid so much when they had never even seen him in a conscious state.

Well, whatever, they were the Ember Island Players.  _ Everything _ they did was odd, in one way or another. As long as their troubles didn’t end up onstage, well, then it was all  _ fine _ .

\- - -

“It’s been  _ three _ weeks.”

“You sound worried.”

“I am. Ami has barely left the kid’s bedside. I’ve been having to test her to make sure she memorizes the lines in time.”

“...Are you sure you’re not worried about the kid, too.”

“...I guess I am. What about you?”

“I think we all are.”

“What are we gonna do once he wakes up?”

“I don’t think Ami will  _ let _ him leave. She’s attached.”

“...We all are.”

\- - -

Takeo and Nori had been the ones downtown the day the poster went up. Nori had been the first one to see it.

\- - -

“...Holy shit.”

“What? What is it?”

“It’s the kid.”

“What’s wrong with him?! Why hasn’t Ami or Eiko said anything?!”

“No, no,  _ look _ .”

“Is that... the kid?”

“Yeah.”

“On a wanted poster?”

“No. It’s a royal decree from Fire Lord Ozai. Officially banishing his son, Prince Zuko from the Fire Nation. It... It says that if he’s found in the Fire Nation, he’s to be captured,  _ dead _ or alive. Anyone found helping him will... will also be arrested...”

“...Holy shit.”

“I know.”

“What’re we gonna do?”

“...When that kid wakes up, we’re gonna teach him how to best apply covering makeup.”

“Sounds good to me.”

\- - -

It wasn’t under the third day in the fifth week after the morning that Ami had found the kid (who was apparently the  _ banished son of the Fire Lord _ ) that he woke up.

Ami had been the only one in the room at the time, taking a quick break from rehearsal since she wasn’t in the last scene they were practicing before lunch, anyway, and, honestly, maybe that was appropriate.

The kid had groaned, then winced, then opened his good eye. His other was still wrapped in bandages, though Eiko said those could come off in about another week, along with the ones wrapping the gashes on his legs.

He had locked eyes with Ami, furrowed his eyebrows, and spoken for the first time.

\- - -

“...Who are you?”

“Oh, good morning, Prince Zuko. Er, afternoon.”

“Where am I? How do you know who I am? Who are you?”

“You’re on Ember Island, we know you ‘cause of the royal decree of your banishment, and my name is Ami. I’m one of the Ember Island Players!”

“...You guys suck at Love Amongst Dragons.”

“Maybe I should have left you on the beach.”

“ _ The beach?!? _ ”

**Author's Note:**

> I'm probably gonna write more. I'm having a lot of fun with this AU. It's kinda a breath of fresh air.
> 
> You should comment. Even if you didn't like it.
> 
> Please sustain me,,,


End file.
